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AstraSync One-Day January Sale - Get It For 50% Off!
By Adam Zeis | 26 Jan 2010 11:09 | 30 comments

AstraSync

*Update: Sale extended through Thursday at Midnight PST*

In case you missed AstraSync in our last giveaway, you can grab it now for 50% off. Today only, the awesome "Activesync for BlackBerry" is on sale for new users. The application allows you to easily sync your email, calender and contacts from services like Exchange, FirstClass, and Google to your BlackBerry. It gives you loads of of BES functionality while being on a BIS. The full software retails for $49/year, but today you can grab if for 50% off. Just head over to the AstraSync portal and enter the code JanSale at checkout to receive the discount.

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Filed Under: News & Rumors, BlackBerry Apps ; Tags: AstraSync
Comments
By: iamdjpaul | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 11:22

It seems like wireless sync is becoming the new big thing. I have Lotus notes and I really like the ease of syncing my calendar and contacts with my blackberry. The only Issue I have is that I want to sync Lotus notes for work and a seperate calendar for personal. I wonder if this will do that.

By: thatton | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 11:41

Whats the feedback on this? I tried it a while back because I love the idea of having BES features using a BIS connection but the UI seemed very out-dated and, for lack of a better term, ugly. I'm just wondering if they have addressed those issues with recent updates.

By: cococoot | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 11:53

Why has BB not made a program to sync calendars, contacts, etc. I do not have Outlook so I need it to sync Google and Yahoo. I do not want to have to enter my contacts on my small BB keyboard. Help me RIM>>>>

By: km04 | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 12:01

i might be thick as a brick on this one, but how does this differ from syncing via the bb desktop app? doesn't that do the same things as this app?

By: AstraSync | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 12:43

AstraSync allows you to sync your contacts, calendar, and email wireless to your server. With direct push enabled you will receive emails to your BB almost instantly (depending on network coverage).

By: cococoot | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 12:52

What is I just want to sync my contacts from google and disable syncing for calendar and email. Is that an option? I have an BB Tour 9630. What issues are you aware of when using your software on this phone. I have Verizon. I am just nervous I will get the dreaded reload software 552 again when I downloaded other software. Any info would be great.

David.

By: Autumn Walker | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 14:22

I just rolled this app out to a small organization (< 50 users) and it was completely unusable.

Push mail did not work. HTML mail did not work. Application had severe memory leak which would result in daily battery pulls. Emails randomly discontinued syncing and provided no notification of error to users. Had frequent "phantom" errors that had no repeatable cause.

The app does not integrate with the BB notification system so no LED light and no "mail count" on the status bar. The UI is terrible (cannot read email from / subject in the inbox). It's incredibly slow to use... cannot easily select multiple emails (have to use this unintuitive menu / dropdown list option). Does not support level 1 message filters. Every time you battery pull / restart the application you get a series of prompts to ask for permission to modify data on your device, there is no way to save your acceptance.

That's just the stuff off the top of my head. It's a terrible solution and we are frantically looking for alternatives.

By: dgalanter | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 14:27

Autumn, if you find something else, will you let me know?

PM me here. DGalanter

Thanks,
Dave

By: cococoot | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 14:41

CAN YOU RECOMMEND A GOOD SYNC PROGRAM FOR MY BB TOUR ON VERIZON. I WANT TO SYNC GOOGLE AND YAHOO CALENDAR/CONTACTS TO MY PHONE....

By: upioneer | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 15:13

just use google sync to sync up ur contacts

By: AstraSync | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 16:34

Autumn, we’re sorry to hear about your experience. We can’t find your name in our database, so if you will post your real name we’ll have one of our support team contact you.

In reference to your comments, we have thousands of customers using push mail and HTML every day. The inbox looks exactly like the native BlackBerry Messaging inbox including the option for a 2-line display and provides the same From and Subject information. You can multi-select easily using the keyboard shortcuts.

Your problems may be related to other applications running on the device alongside AstraSync. We certainly know that if you try and run AstraSync together with Google Sync or when connected to a BES server you will have lots of problems because they are both trying to sync the same data at the same time. If you have a large volume of messages, contacts or events then the newer BlackBerry devices (such as the Bold 9700 or Curve 8900) will work better than the older generation devices because they have more memory and faster processors.

By: Autumn Walker | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 19:36

I'm not going to talk about my client here, but I will confirm the following:

The devices were all freshly wiped running on BIS connections. There were no other 3rd party applications. The users had large volumes of email and PIM data, however they were running on the BB Bold.

I've spent some time searching around on the AstraSync message / support forums and it seems that the issues we have experienced are known and documented with resolutions such as "disable HTML email as this is a known issue we're working on for the next version" and "disable push mail and use 5 minute sync instead" - hardly a solution to either issue.

By: ktaliana | Date: Thu, 01/28/2010 - 08:49

I was interested in this product so I decided to give the trial version a go on my Curve. I registered on the AstraSync site and recieved a download link via SMS. When I recieved the SMS I realised that back in October (6th Oct 2009 to be exact), I had recieved a spam SMS FROM THE SAME NUMBER saying that I won 1 million EUR in a European mobile lottery award and to contact steven.smith@lawrelief.net to claim the prize!

So it makes me wonder about the reliability of the source, unless AstraSync has a fair explanation for this!

By: AstraSync | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 19:56

All known HTML issues have been resolve in build 4.0.25 of AstraSync available for download at www.astrasync.com/dwl./

By: jasonvw | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 20:16

Very good deal. Im in need of activesync solution for my 9700. Been trying out astrasync and notifysync the past week or so, and Im having issues with astrasync. Getting a 403: Forbidden Error when connecting to the work exchange server. Installed the certificate but still have the issue. Notifysync is working perfectly. Too bad for me, this would have been a killer deal. Notifysync is much more expensive the first year.

By: dubbledxu | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 21:18

Is anyone else getting the error "You have entered an invalid Discount Code?" I have tried every iteration of JanSale possible. I hope this isnt indicative of the usability of the app.

If purchased today, can I defer the start of 12 month subscription until the program is downloaded / activated?

I am in the process of switching from WM to BB, and dont know when my BB will arrive.

By: squally123 | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 20:28

I have a BB storm 2 and downloaded the trial which is good for 6 days. This thing is worthless. Maybe its not compatible with my phone, i don't know. It continually kept bringing up a dialog box saying the application was not signed or something and it did this for every one of my calendar entries which there were 160 and I had to continually click yes for each one. Then I tried to view my e-mails after the painful first sync and the headers were there with no body of the e-mail. Totally worthless. I'm not sure how people are using this app.

By: squally123 | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 20:30

By the way, I am using Thinkpost.net's solution to have wireless sync with Outlook for contacts, notes, calendar and e-mail. This program works much better for 4/month. You do have to install a small app in outlook as well.

By: 5star | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 21:06

I too cannot purchase it with the code "JanSale" to get the %50 off of the one year subscription price...recieve the same error as mentioned above by another user...tried to check out via the AstraSync portal as mentioned and also tried the mobihand checkout directly....I get either coupond code is invalid on the AstraSync site and recieve coupon expired in mobihand checkout...

hope they fix this or extend the sale

By: izzzy12k | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 21:36

I am trying to set this for my wife on her 8900, but I get a 403 error... I am unable to post on thier forums, so maybe I can get some help here. :)

I visited https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/ and got all green marks till the bottom:
Attempting an ActiveSync session with server
Errors were encountered while testing the ActiveSync session
Test Steps
Attempting to send OPTIONS command to server
Testing the OPTIONS command failed. See Additional Details for more info
Additional Details
An HTTP 403 forbidden response was received. The response appears to have come from Unknown. Body is:

Anyone know how to fix? If I can this to work, my wife definitely get a subscription.

thx

By: mikej7 | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 22:38

code will not work!!

By: mikej7 | Date: Tue, 01/26/2010 - 23:01

After reading all the problems I am glad the coupon code did not work! Sounds like lot of issues and bugs that need fixed. Busy enough with work emails, do not need to spend hours trying to figure out why this software will not work properly as others have posted.

By: schlinger | Date: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 01:32

I get an "You have entered an invalid Discount Code" error. Anyone had success with the code?

By: bricenm | Date: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 02:18

Just downloaded and installed OTA version 4.0.25 and works great on my Storm 2. I can now have 2-way sync with my work calendar since my company doesn't use BES. I was using OWA on my BB for email access.

I will definitely buy, but...as others have mentioned, the coupon code doesn't work!

By: AstraSyncDaveRyder | Date: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 06:37

Hi, I'm very sorry to hear that some of you are having problems using AstraSync. Whilst we know that there are tens of thousands of happy customers using AstraSync who do not experience any problems, we are constantly aware of the need to identify and resolve new issues.

If you would like to contact our support services direct at http://www.astrasync.com/portal/cases/ or by emailing support@astrasync.com we will work with you to resolve any issues you are experiencing.

Also please accept my apologies if you have had a problem getting the discount code to work. The code expired at midnight GMT which might have caused some confusion, and we should have been clearer about this. We have therefore reactivated this code until midnight PST Thursday 28th, I hope that allows anyone else to purchase at this great price.

Dave Ryder,
VP Sales
AstraSync
Feel free to contact me direct: dave.ryder@astrasync.com

By: Tpony | Date: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 11:20

I was a little bit scared to try the program after reading the comments above but I have had no trouble at all. I have an Bold 9000 running 4.6 OS and it's working like a charm. This application is awesome!

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By: Justmyluck13 | Date: Sun, 01/31/2010 - 12:49

Sounds like a good deal. I had just discovered Astrasync on Friday as I was looking for a way to sync work email/calendar/contacts on my 8900 which is due to arrive on Monday!

Will be trying out the program when my BB arrives, wish it hand't been back ordered I might have been able to take advantage of this!

By: psyop1 | Date: Mon, 05/03/2010 - 03:34

24 million dollar buy-in capital deficit in their last 10k filing, with a 1.4 million dollar working capital deficit, 4.6 million dollars in revenue with a 97 percent gross margin (yes, you read it correctly)!!!

It's a penny stock company that is more than 50 percent owned by 3 people who make a combined 600,000 dollars a year in salary.

The 120 dollar buy in for the first year isn't worth it, and they'll have a tough time going big if they don't lower the price.

This is a great product, but it has to appeal to a larger audience to gain much traction. Considering the price of a CAL for BES, and the buy-in costs for BES, why would anyone buy this product for any significant number of employees? They won't, because the cost deltas disappear almost immediately as the number of users increase beyond just a few.

Lower the price to 50 bucks, put it on sale for 30 a couple times a year, and make subsequent years 30 bucks (or even 50 bucks), and I'll buy it today.

By: psyop1 | Date: Mon, 05/03/2010 - 03:39

I was speaking of NotifyLink, not AstraSync. AstraSync is owned by MailSite, which is privately owned and not required to file or disclose financial statements.

 
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